Nowadays, it’s hard to find a business article that doesn’t mention automation as a practical solution to many workplace problems. RPA, or Robotics Process Automation, sounds daunting, but the truth is the advantage of RPA bots are practical, tangible, and good for your bottom line.
One of our manufacturing clients shared how they recently came close to losing a valuable client. It was a typical business day, with invoices, waybills, and other items coming in and going out. The billing department handles numerous documents daily, often cutting and pasting (and zoning out) during the process.
One of the invoices went out to a supplier for 35,000 US dollars instead of the 3,500 US dollars the supplier owed our client. When the invoice crossed the supplier CEO’s desk, he was upset—why would they bill so much? Surely the company was taking advantage of them and overcharging!
Resolving and correcting the invoice took a few phone calls and apologies. Unfortunately, the relationship with the supplier was damaged, and it was hard to reestablish trust. From the supplier’s perspective, the company was inaccurate with their billing (at best) and (at worst) trying to take advantage or overcharge.
Now, it may seem extreme, but this type of scenario happens every day across many industries and in many different offices. Billing errors, mistakes, oversights, and missteps damage partnerships, hurt trust, and taint our reputations.
The solution is to reduce the opportunities for human error. Software robots offer automation, taking the rote and repetitive tasks off your human employees’ plates so they can focus on higher-value tasks. RPA technology also helps you deliver a better customer experience, making your business more responsive and giving you a competitive advantage. Your human resources can focus on improving customer satisfaction levels and daily operations that require human interaction and sensitivity.
The pros and cons of RPA
Think of the tasks that take human workers a long time with a high opportunity for error. For example, creating price lists or manually moving data collection information into a spreadsheet. Any task that requires repeatedly copying and pasting information, keying, sorting, or organising data can be automated. RPA works in real time with different systems to offer better outcomes that support the human workforce.
Often, the fear with automation is that it will eliminate human jobs. While many jobs require a human’s creativity, there are also tasks that are repetitive, time-consuming, and even boring. Consider high-volume tasks and simple tasks where automation solutions offer real value. RPA streamlines those lower-value tasks in much less time, freeing up your team for what they do best. It’s about maximising human actions and using artificial intelligence to handle the “boring” stuff. You’ll likely discover more employee satisfaction along the way.
The benefits of robotic process automation include:
- Eliminating human error
- 24×7 availability with no interruptions for PTO
- Unbiased decisions
- Releases employees from monotonous, repetitive, “mindless” work
- Increases productivity and output from your team
- Enhances customer service
- Cuts operational costs and expensive mistakes
Now if you’re weighing the pros and cons of RPA, there are, of course, a few challenges. To implement RPA tools, you must work with a partner with RPA and AI expertise. RPA should integrate into your existing and legacy systems.
It’s also important to recognize that good data is critical to a good outcome. Your RPA implementation won’t be smooth if your data is scarce. It all depends on the quality and volume. Does your infrastructure have the processing power to support RPA software?
Implementing RPA solutions can also require sensitivity and planning with your team. It’s hard for employees not to feel concerned when mundane tasks and low-skilled activities move off their plates. The goal is to maximise the advantage of human creativity and innovation to ensure that you’re not giving your team less to do but instead giving them tasks more suited to their talents. The result is often increased employee engagement and job satisfaction. RPA benefits morale.
Using human-in-the-loop machine learning, humans assist with robotic processes by giving feedback and adjusting the input for better results. This approach plays on the strengths of humans and automation to improve productivity and outcomes with the use of robots. RPA is excellent for tedious tasks, rule-based tasks, and repetitive business operations.
Once you’ve examined the pros and cons of RPA, recognise that the cost of implementation is probably less than you think. More importantly, the advantages of RPA can far outweigh the challenges. With long-term cost savings, better customer service, and higher productivity, RPA is helpful in almost any capacity.
The demand and expectation of automation continue to grow in many sectors and various industries—from financial services to the insurance industry, manufacturing, shipping, and e-commerce. RPA will keep your business moving forward with lower costs and greater accuracy.
EasyRPA eliminates pain points
EasyRPA is an AI-enriched RPA robots platform that helps to automate business processes effectively and quickly. The platform has no license fee, making it affordable and easy to implement. You only pay for the process automation.
The EasyRPA solution offers the functionality of the top RPA vendors. It’s highly secure, scalable and includes OCR and AI. EasyRPA helps you create a human-in-the-loop workplace where your employees’ strengths build upon the advantages of RPA.
Our team develops each RPA solution for you. This ensures that we customize the robots to the tasks you need for your company, role, and situation. As an RPA leader with over 700 automated processes, we know how to find the right fit. We offer fast implementation with over 100 machine-learning experts to guide you along the way.
Get the added reliability and security of an RPA solution. EasyRPA is ideal for financial institutions and sensitive data. With highly secure systems, we eliminate time-consuming manual tasks that create gaps for human mistakes. Simplify data entry, organise invoicing, and meet customers’ needs.
This content has been produced in collaboration with a partner organisation through our Global Visibility Programme. Our programme helps companies boost their digital presence and strengthen the thought leadership of their experts. Find out more here.
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